4of6A woman walks through a covered section of sidewalk at the base of the Millennium Tower. City building inspectors ordered the building’s operators to erect scaffolding above the sidewalk surrounding the building after a window cracked above Mission Street.Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

5of6Spray paint marks a section of the sidewalk that sinks and is cracked at the base of the Millennium Tower.Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

6of6The Millennium Tower (left), next to Salesforce Tower (center), is sinking, and the city is trying to stave off claims by the developer and homeowners association that it is partially to blame.Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

The final tab for fixing San Francisco’s tilting Millennium Tower is still up in the air, but taxpayers are already on the hook for up to $15.7 million in lawyers fees. And the legal meter is still running.

That’s money approved for the firm of Jones Day to help fend off claims by developer Millennium Partners and homeowners that construction of the neighboring Transbay Transit Center contributed to the sinking and tilting of the 58-story luxury residential high-rise.

“It’s a lot of money — I’m surprised it is so high,” said Greg Harper, who represents AC Transit on the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, which built and operates the transit center.

“But it’s the top construction law firm in the county and ... they charge a lot of money and they are billing a lot of hours,” Harper said.

Nine lawsuits have been filed by various parties in the Millennium case. There are 146 lawyers from 30 to 40 law firms involved, according to attorneys participating.

One firm, O’Melveny & Myers, is led by Dan Petrocelli, who was involved in the civil case against O.J. Simpson. The firm had been representing the Millennium Tower Homeowners Association, but pulled out of the case Friday amid reports that it wasn’t getting paid.

Vision Winter, an attorney speaking for O’Melveny & Myers, declined to comment Tuesday on the specific reason for the firm’s exit.

Attorney Rachel Miller of the Tom Miller Law Firm, which is taking over the lead role for the plaintiffs, said only that “it’s the association’s position they want to explore resolution options through the mediation process” to avoid all-out litigation that could prove costly for everyone.

The tower has sunk 18 inches and tilted 14 inches since it opened in April 2009. Millennium Partners has blamed the sinking problem on ground shifts brought on by the construction of the massive Transbay Transit Center, which is located just across Fremont Street from the tower. It opened last month.

The bus and (someday, it is hoped) rail hub is owned and managed by the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, a partnership of the city of San Francisco, SamTrans and AC Transit.

Last year, the authority authorized spending $3.5 million on Jones Day’s services. Since then, the lawyers have burned through another $7.2 million, said Transbay Executive Director Mark Zabaneh.

A window on the Millennium Tower that developed a crack is seen covered up.

Photo: Noah Berger / Special to The Chronicle

Just this month, the TJPA authorized yet another $5 million for lawyers, bringing the total to $15.7 million.

Money for the legal fees is coming out of the $300 million loan that the center received from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to finish the $2.2 billion center when it went over budget.

Zabaneh said most of the money has gone into ongoing mediation to determine who’s to blame for the sinking and tilting. That includes money spent on expert witnesses and scientific modeling.

Zabaneh said the authority has opted for a pay-as-they-go strategy rather than awarding a single, megamillion contract for lawyers.

“As the case progresses, we assess the needs and add money,” Zabaneh said.

How much money will be added to the $15.7 million spent so far remains to be seen, but one plaintiffs’ lawyer said he wouldn’t be surprised if the tab for Jones Day and a second firm it hired to work on the case reach $20 million, $30 million or more — with lawyers from at least five offices handling the litigation.

The primary case involving the developer, the transbay authority, the homeowners association and individual condo owners is not set for trial until June.

In another twist, a San Francisco Superior Court judge last week raised the prospect that the authority could also be on the hook for some of the Millennium developer’s legal costs as part of a decade-old indemnification agreement worked out before the work began on the transit center. And sources tell us the developer’s legal costs are likely to match the TJPA’s own spending on lawyers.

In a lengthy statement issued Monday, the authority insisted the indemnification agreement it signed with the developer only involved a retaining wall to shore up the tower.

“TJPA did not cause the excessive settlement and tilting of the Millennium Tower,” Zabaneh said. “The claims against us are a ploy to get taxpayers to bail out a wealthy developer whose defective design is responsible for the excessive movement of the tower.”

Zabaneh added that the authority “will defend itself and our legal costs are a necessary and wise expenditure in light of the potential substantial damages being sought in the litigation.”

The 58-story Millennium Tower at Fremont and Mission in SoMa is sinking and tilting and already San Francisco taxpayers are on the hook for $15.7 million and counting in legal fees.

Photo: Paul Chinn / The Chronicle

But Millennium spokesman P.J. Johnston said the transbay authority “has recklessly ignored (its) obligations, and it has tried to shift blame to the developer of the Millennium Tower. TJPA’s strategy will not succeed, and the (Superior Court’s) recent ruling shows that TJPA will be held accountable for its actions.”

Informed of the agency’s legal spending, San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who has been bird-dogging the Millennium’s troubles, said, “My hope is all the parties to the litigation — the builders, the homeowners association, the TJPA — will stop wasting money on lawyers and get into a room with their insurance companies and cough up the money to repair the Millennium Tower.”

Back in the limelight: Bernie Ward, the “Lion of the Left,” as he was known for years on KGO radio before his 2008 conviction for possession and distribution of child pornography, popped up in a Washington Post story this week on embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

WARD/C/17AUG95/CD/LS BERNIE WARD OF KGO RADIO

Photo: Lea Suzuki / San Francisco Chronicle

Ward recounted his years as a marriage and sex education teacher at Washington’s Georgetown Prep, where his students included both Kavanaugh and sitting Justice Neil Gorsuch.

Ward described how an atmosphere of excess pervaded the Jesuit boarding school where he taught in the early 1980s.

“The drinking was unbelievable,” Ward told the Post. “It was part of the culture. A parent even bought the keg and threw one of the parties for the kids.

“They took umbrage when I compared their rooting around with girls to dogs in heat,” Ward told the Post.

The once-talkative Ward has mostly been silent since his release from federal prison in December 2014 after serving a six-year sentence for the child pornography conviction.

Ward, who is back living at his family’s westside home in San Francisco these days, was not available for comment Monday and apparently he isn’t interested in giving any more interviews.

“I don’t think he wants to do that again,” his wife told us when reached by phone.

San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross appear Sundays, Mondays and Wednesdays. Matier can be seen on the KPIX TV morning and evening news. He can also be heard on KCBS radio Monday through Friday at 7:50 a.m. and 5:50 p.m. Got a tip? Call 415-777-8815, or email matierandross@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @matierandross

Whether writing about politics or personalities, Phil Matier and Andy Ross informed and entertained readers for more than two decades about the always fascinating Bay Area and beyond. Their blend of scoops, insights and investigative reporting was found every Sunday, Monday and Wednesday in the San Francisco Chronicle.